A super quick note to let you know I`m alive and heading home!

So, we had fun in La Paz. It`s a big city... insane, dirty, chaotic, and culturally very mixed. Cholitas mingle with business men on cell phones, men run around in funny colored hats not giving people like me a second look. I didn`t get altitude sickness, but was super duper tired. We saw the monoliths at Tiawanaku...aMAZing. Unreal the kind of precise angles and designs these ancient people could make with only the simplest instruments.
We went to Copachabana (totally a hippie town) on Lake Titicaca... the lake is an unreal blue color (not at all like the murky green I was expecting) and we went to Isla del Sol. A long, hot hike, but definitely worth the gorgeous views of the lake. We then returned home. I felt like I spent a lot of that weekend in a vehicle of some sorts, but I guess you have to enjoy the ride as well, right? It can`t all be waterfalls and dinosaurs.

After a whirlwind last week in Cochabamba, seeing all those I wanted to say goodbye to, visiting all the restaurants I couldn`t live without, saying goodbye to my John Brian and other children, seeing one last futbol game, and having a great big goodbye weekend, (oh yah, and writing some final papers.. haha), we`re in Samaipata, Bolivia (Santa Cruz - the beach without the sea) chilling for a week. I`ll try to update when I can!

Oh, and, by the way, I somehow completely lost my voice and now sound like an old man.

That`s what Bolivia will do to ya, I guess. :)

Insurance, rheumatic fever, and things like Jonah.

So, although I have no exciting travels to update you on from this current weekend (I didn´t want the title to lead you astray), I have many other exciting insights and cultural experiences to present, so sit back and relax.


I almost died of rheumatic fever.



Ok, so that´s an exaggeration. I only felt like having someone remove my throat from my body, because my tonsils were inflamed when I awoke with a fever Thursday morning. (I was supposed to go play horn for the kids at Ceoli. THAT didn´t happen. I took a shower and then a 4 hour nap). After sleeping away the whole day and drinking more cups of tea than ever before in all my life combined, I decided on Friday when I could still see more of my tonsils than my tongue and when I couldn´t speak Spanish in class (not because of lack of knowledge, but lack of motor skills) that I would go to the doctor.


This was a serious decision because of some warnings I recieved before I came down here. But since I´ve been here, I´ve decided anything that is good enough for the Bolivians I live with here is more than good enough to suffice for me. That and the fact that I decided it was either go to the doctor or never eat or swallow or speak again. The decision was really not that hard. :)

Friday afternoon i got my first insight into the a world of non-American health care. Let me tell you, it was just as shiney and clean, and, if I knew Spanish better, it would have been less intimidating. I went to my coordinator´s personal doctor at his job in a big insurance hospital for some huge bank thing. I didn´t understand, but it was large and clean and didn´t smell like a hospital. The doctor was very kind and listened patiently as I struggled to explain in Spanish what was going on. But my motions and the translation of Jean Carla (coordinator) got it across clearly. Then, the examination went exactly as every other strep throat exam has gone in my life. Minus the super long cotton swab and all the nurses taking my pulse. It was just me, Jean Carla and the doc, he took a look down my throat and said, ¨Dios Mio!¨ (which means ¨my God!¨, never a great thing to hear from an experienced health worker when you´re on the table). He told me how strong I was for withstanding the pain and how glad he was that I had come when I did because people can develop rheumatic fever later on in life from what I had.

Gee.


He gave me a prescription, and we headed out the door, no nurses or reception ladies involved. In the States I think it would have taken 2 hours longer and employed at least 7 more people. But I think what we did would have been illegal in the states, me, a private (out of country) patient visiting him during a time he was supposed to be working for a private company. In that private company´s facilities. Oh well, T.I.B.


We took the prescription to a drive through pharmacy, and Jean Carla told the lady how many of this strong antibiotic I wanted. Wow. And no cool Kroger bottle with my name and address on it. Just the box the pills originally come in. Ok. :) A strong antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, and a visit to the doc all cost less than 40 bucks. woo hoo.


Since my visit, I did a little Wikipedia exploration on my possibly tragic future with rheumatic fever. I knew that the Bolivians exaggerate when it comes to how delicious food is or how cold the weather is, but not that they would tell me I might get a disease that almost entirely effects children and that only has a 2% chance of causing me serious harm anyways. Oh, and this whole time I´ve had the strep throught I always thought it was. I know my strep throats.

At any rate, according to my Bolivian family, I simply must have my tonsils out when I return to the states. Yay for ice cream. :)


The pills worked lovely, and by Friday evening, as I lie in bed watching Friends, I already felt better. But I was still sick of tea.



That was my experience with Bolivian health system. Quite lovely, I have a check up scheduled for Monday. Now for my experience with Bolivian vehicle and health insurance.

Saturday, I thought, was going to be a lovely day. I lie in bed for the first morning I could remember in a very long time without a thing to do when I woke up. I listened to some music, watched a little TV and finally got dressed to go to my Bolivian sister´s house for lunch. I grabbed a plate of salad and my other sister´s boyfriend grabbed a tray of soups and we got in the car. We discussed coca growing in Bolivia and the jungle, and my trip to La Paz next weekend on the way over. It was the Day of the Children in Bolivia, so we picked up a present for Alexia, my niece here. As we were pulling onto the street where my sister lives, a van passed on the side we were turning. With a few choice Spanish words exchanged, my sister went to continue her turn, when all the sudden a motocyclist was on the hood of our car.

no lie.

Because the van had passed at such an inopportune moment, we could neither see the cyclists nor he see us, and we had a collision. Thankfully, the first I saw of the cyclist was him hopping around, in one piece while his bike lie vertically against the front of our car, back wheel still going strong.

Next thing I know, my sister´s boyfriend next to me is cursing and waving his hands around. I thought he was somehow hurt, even though we weren´t moving. Nope. Just the very very hot soup (which I later found out was all for me, since I wasn´t to have solids yet) that was now all over his lap. Ouch. There was mass confusion, trying to catch the cyclist and make sure he was not in shock, trying to right the cycle and stop it from spinning, and I was busy trying to clean up the soup in the car (futile effort, let me tell you). I was dropped at the other sister´s house with the car and my mom and sister went with the man to the hospital to see he was taken care of to take care of his bill, since they were at fault. The boyfriend went to see what the damage was done to the bike, and to see how much that would be.

I was left standing at the door of the house, amazed at how smoothly an odd kind of justice had taken place without the aid of Geico or All-State.

Bolivians take care of each other. Even though my sister could not have seen him coming because of the van, they made sure that this cyclist was taken care of, because they´re all grown adults, and someone has to pay. Amazing to see this and compare it to the headbutting episode that took place with the coke dealers (see my trip to Uyuni).

Anyways, I was eating the little bit of soup that survived the wreck with my Bolivian grandfather, brother in law, and the boyfriend, waiting for the women to return from the hospital (the guy was fine, just a scrape on his knee, wow.). At this moment another tradgedy struck, before anyone had time to recover from the first. Cobu, Alexia´s dog was missing. Oh man. Tears started streaming, and immediately the men left their steak and beer at the table (as well as a large hunk of meat cooking on the grill, which I had to attempt to save later on) to man the search. They all disappeared in different directions in the neighborhood, determined to be the hero to this little 5 year old and bring back a bundle of joy to her. However, I watched sadly as each man returned emptied handed, over an hour later, with a look of defeat as if their army had just lost the war. It´s amazing how men love the women in their lives, including the 5 year olds. :)

So, in case Cobu decides to run north for the winter, here´s a picture that looks something like him. Minus, of course, the ridiculous orange polo shirt. Cobu would never wear something like that. (by the way, there´s a 400 bs reward!!)

Today I ate pizza with corn on it, and it was good. for real. I hope I can find a way to get that back in the states.

And, just an update on my personal life.

I saw a gorgeous shooting star last night at 3 am. It was one of those that you feel like God put out there just for you because you took the time to give his stars a good glance.

And I´ve been reading the book of Jonah lately. And thinking about how I think I would have liked Jonah. He seems like a kind of hard head with a good heart. I´m sure Tarsus was not his first screw up. And I wonder what he was thinking when he told the pirates (sure, the word is ¨sailors¨but is so much better to think of Johnny Depp in the book of Jonah) that it was his fault, throw him overboard. I´m pretty sure he didn´t think God was going to bail him out of this one in his great mercy. And he´s met with a big fish. Ponder on that with me for a while, then tell me your opinion of the humor of God. :)

When I did a search for ¨big fish¨ this was one of the first pics. Haha. I love kids and their brand of pride.
Now, you, too, can be Just Like Jonah!!! (please wait for only 3 hours while we inflate your miracle)

This guy looks like he wishes he was Jonah. I think he´s just weird. I hope you don´t think I´m too weird for putting pictures of strangers (and their dogs) on my blog. I felt guilty about the lack of pics this post around. :)

Until next post!

(Btw, if you´re looking for a specific Bolivian story or trinket, now´s the time to let me know!)

updates on the not so normal (and, by the way, I almost died)

So I`m going to update you on my trip to Toro Toro this weekend, but first, some updates on day to day stuff.

Volunteering: I`m still working with the orphans at Millenium. And I`m in love. I think I might bring a couple back. My favorite is John Brian. He`s 2 and something and reminds me either of a little samuri or monk, depending on what he`s wearing at the time. But he`s the smallest of the older kids, and he`s got this raspy voice that is so unlike any two year old I`ve ever heard before. And he`s one tough cookie. And he always smiles back at me when I smile at him, and, let me tell you, it`s a smile that will melt your heart quicker than an 18 wheeler will run a redlight here (which is really fast).

happiness is pushing a bundle of pure joy in a red swing.

Last week on we had an exciting trip with the kids to Globos, which is a great ice cream wonderland for children (and people like me as well). Some of the co-founders of Millenium who now live in the US paid for us to take all the kids out for Salchipapa (fries and sausages) and ice cream. It was quite an adventure. We piled 14 people into a SUV (remember, most of them were half sized) and off we went. Once we arrived, we created quite a scene, walking into the restaurant with 9 screaming children between the age of 2 and 6. We then took them to the play section of the restaurant. It was better than any McDonald´s I ever got to play in as a kid. I had to resist the urge to jump in and join them. It was really strange to see the orphans mixing in with kids whose parents were watching their move, were at the bottom of every slide. But it was so encouraging to see how ¨normal¨ they were nontheless, how happy they are with life. Maybe if there was something equivalent to a ball pit for adults the world would be a happier place. After the play place and almost losing John Brian 3 times, we sat down to eat. Everyone (including me and Matt) recieved ice cream... yum! John Brian had to sit in my lap because there we couldn`t fit enough large chairs for little people around the table. I think he got more ice cream on me than in his mouth, (partly because he insisted upon me eating the gummy bears in his oso cremoso) but everyone left there in the jolliest mood.

Last week was my first week of working at Ceoli. I go there on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Ceoli is a school and center for physically and mentally disabled children and persons from the ages of 5 to 28 or so. It was very interesting to tour the facility the first day. There is a classroom for high functioning children where they learn about colors and practice walking in a straight line or practice writing their numbers. I work here, and so far I`ve made giant drawings of avocados and grapes and things like that for flashcards. There is also a room for those who are lower functioning where they learn to make a bed and other day to day things like that. There`s a class for learning how to deal with agressive emotions. There`s an aqua therapy room, and the most impressive to me, there`s a physical therapy room which is very nice. In fact, in the afternoon after most of the children are gone, community members pay to come here for treatment. And, my favorite place, is the art room, where mostly older persons create crafts. It was really surprising to see the beautiful necklaces and bracelets that a man made, when he couldn`t even tell me his name was Leo. It`s so interesting to see the creativity present in the mind which is hindered in so many ways by his disability. In the art room there`s this teacher who looks like a pirate/biker/gang member who has a cane and a limp. And is the one of the nicest people ever. I hope to get to know him somewhat.

Now, for my trip to Toro Toro.

This is a small community in what looks like Jurassic Park. For real, it looks like the mountains there just sprang up last week, they lie at all kinds of crazy angles. And there are dinosaur footprints conserved marvelously.

Here I am pretending I`m a brontasaurus. But I think it ended up looking like I was falling into a very shallow pond. Maybe if I had a longer neck...

Our first day there we went on a hike to waterfalls. But this wasn`t your everyday hike. We hiked for a while through fields with dino footprints in them following our super cool guide Mario. Then we descended 850 stairs into a canyon 1/8 the size of the Grand Canyon. From there, we jumped from rock to rock, crossed rivers, and scaled walls with the help of a rope and Mario until we arrived at a waterfall, in which we ravished in the cool waters.

When I say ravished, I mean, I jumped in and it was all I could do to keep my head above water and breathe, it was so cold. Almost shock cold. It was quite glorious.

Here I am jumping into the cool waters. Please note my awesome outfit of bathing suit and tennis shoes. And Zareen`s cheering warrior pose in the background. :)

The hike ended up being 6 intense hours. We arrived to lunch at 4:30, famished. This is one of the few times in my life I can say I have truly been exhausted. Almost too tired to sit upright in a chair or eat.

The next day we awoke at 5 to go to cave number one of the day. We were supposed to do this cave the night before (after the hike!), but through an act of God, it rained and it was too wet to enter that night. So, after trying to get to sleep through the drunken serenades of the hotel owner´s birthday party, we arose not so bright and early at 5 Sunday and were on our way. Caving has always been pretty interesting, to me, mainly because of the lack of life yet the prescence of very interesting formations and such in them. In this cave, we did a lot of walking, rock jumping, and one scootch through a small space. We returned for lunch and then were off on an hour hike to our second cave. I was a little worried about this one because the level of intensity was supposed to be quite a bit higher, and a girl from last year`s group ended up crying. Gee. Well, the beginning of it was a bit difficult as I had to scoot through a space that my head almost got stuck in and then had to shimmy 8 meters down a rope (almost died #1). Throughout the cave, I barely had time to think as I was just trying to follow Mario`s every move as we twisted our way and contorted our bodies through all kinds of tight spaces. Some of the most fun parts were seeing Mario`s personal ¨treasure den¨with some very interestingly shaped stalagtites and mites. Apparently, less than 100 human eyes have seen these. I feel honored.

This, one of mario`s treasures, kind of looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.. or some Roman structure combined with Salvador Dali`s touch. haha. Another very interesting part of the cave was what I like to call ¨Dr. Suess`s Hell¨. It was very smooth black rocks in all kinds of funny structures in which we had to try our darndest not to fall through to either water or more rocks (almost died #2 and 3). But the most rewarding part of all was the exit of the cave. We came out through a waterfall, (almost died #4) no lie. :) What victory.

We returned home by bumpy jeep ride, and as soon as I hit the bed, I was out. Never have I ever slept a better 11 hours in my life. Never mind the fact I couldn`t move for soreness Monday morning. :)

Bolivia: Life a mile (or kilometer) a minute.

the Jungle

This might be a quick post, because I´ve got to head to IC Norte (grocery store) and grab some lunch and snacks for the trip to Toro Toro this weekend.

Crazy, 2 weeks ago I was in a desert, last weekend I was in the Amazonian jungle, and this weekend I´m going to walk where the dinosaurs walked and do some extreme caving. :) How fantastic. I hope you can tell I´m loving it here.

So, last weekend, just the six students (without any ¨adults¨ or people who know how Bolivia really works) headed into the jungle. It´s a portion of the Cochabamba department, but is much lower in altitude and much more humid than the city. Honestly, it felt like being at home. :) Quite lovely. It was startling the difference the altitude made: when we were doing some walking in the jungle, we could all actually breathe without struggling for oxygen.

Our first day there, we went rafting on the Holy Spirit River. :) I thought what an appropriate name for a powerful, wild and slightly dangerous river whose views inspired awe in us all. It was much fun, because our guide really enjoyed it too, he was our age. And it was some of my fellows first time, so they were really enjoying their first rafting experience. I think this might have been my first rafting trip where I didn´t fall out. Props to me.

After a return to the hotel (Los Tucarnes - the toucans) which, by the way, was quite luxiurious, with a pool and great food, for only 15 bucks a night, we headed out to Parque Machia. It is a wildlife sanctuary with volunteers from all over the world. The first place we headed was to the monkey sanctuary. This is where I met my friend, Zaru.

We met when she jumped off the roof onto my shoulder to steal my hair tie right out of my hair. :) Quite a sweetie, and almost hauntingly like a human. It was fantastic to see her work at opening Carolyn´s water bottle. I asked some of the volunteers if they could open the bottle, and they said of course, they have opposable thumbs too. Haha.

That night we went out on the town for a little while that night, but decided to come back to the easy comfort of the hotel with its poolside hammocks and quite jungle sounds to hang out. The next day we went to Parque Carasco. 8 of us (2 Bolivian friends from Cochabamba had joined us) rode in one taxi the 25 minutes out there. Zareen, Andreas, and I bonded in the back of the taxi, as our feet hung out the back of the open trunk and the odd spectacle drew curious stares from every Chaparian we passed. :) Quite a study in human reaction to a gringo-packed taxi.

At this park we had a guide take us over a river, and through the jungle to see the wonders located there. We saw ants almost as big as my thumb and bats about the same size. We also got a glimpse of blind birds that live in a cave there. It was eerie when we turned a corner and could hear their upset cries at being disturbed during the day. It kind of made me think of a sound effect from Jurassic Park. By the time we got out of the park, everyone was as soaked as we had been after rafting, but this time thanks to the humidity.

This is a tree that puts out more roots as it grows taller, so that it can sway in the wind, but still be stable. Neato, huh?

Over the river and through the jungle. :) This was just a steel and bamboo cage that was suspended on cables and hand-pushed over the water.

After another dip in the pool, we packed up to head home the same way we came.. by surubi. Surubi is a fish native to the Chapare, but also a name used for vans that go straight from Cochabamba to Chapare, and reverse. You buy a ticket or just pay the driver straight, and once he has 7 people in his van, he heads off. So we had 5 of our group and a woman with oversized bags and a man with a lot of bananas. :)

I forgot to mention that passing on mountain curves is an expected traffic maneuver here. We almost got in trouble with that one the way home, as at one point on a curve there were 3 cars wide and a mountain dropoff on the right side. But we were in the middle, calm down Mom. :)

Off to see the dinosaurs!!! (only one month until I head back to the states)

p.s. Our postal service is on ¨indefinite strike¨. So, please feel free to continue sending mail. Just know that no one knows when I might get it. :) T.I.B. This is Bolivia.